CFUW Aboriginal Women’s Award (AWA)

2019-2020 Value: $10,000
(Non-renewable)
The CFUW AWA is presented as a one-time award to celebrate the CFUW 100th Anniversary in 2019.

In March 2015, the Education Council-Wolfville transferred the proceeds of their education fund to the CFUW Charitable Trust to establish a new award, the CFUW Aboriginal Women’s Award (AWA). This award was designed to honour Dr. Marion Elder Grant’s life-long commitment to education of women. Dr. Grant has an outstanding record of leadership as the 11th CFUW President (1949-52), CFUW Wolfville President, and Dean of Women and Professor of Psychology, Acadia University.

An applicant for the CFUW AWA will be considered eligible on the basis of the following criteria:

Canadian Aboriginal woman;

Study in Canada;

Holds or will hold an undergraduate university degree or equivalent before the CFUW AWA for which she applied is granted; and

Must have applied to be a full-time student in any year of an eligible program at a recognized or accredited Canadian post-secondary degree-granting institution.

Eligible programs: are the academic programs for which a CFUW AWA Applicant (or Renewal Applicant) may be studying. They include:

Programs leading to a first degree in law – Bachelor of Laws (LLB); Juris Doctor (JD).

Programs leading to the following first degrees in medicine – Medical Doctor (MD); Doctor of Optometry (OD).

Programs leading to qualifying for a licence to practice as a Nurse Practitioner in the province or territory of the graduate’s choice.

Programs leading to a Master’s degree in fields dealing with important Canadian aboriginal issues at the time the AWA is given as defined by the most recent Canadian report by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples.

2018-2019 Winner: ALANA ROBERT

B.A. (Hons), 2016, University of Manitoba
J.D., 2016-2019, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University

Alana Robert is entering her final year at Osgoode Hall Law School. She specialized her studies through the Test Case Litigation Clinic, which focuses on creating new legal precedents to ignite social change. She is the Co-President of the Osgoode Indigenous Students’ Association, participated in the Kawaskimhon National Aboriginal Law Moot, and leads various projects on eliminating gender-based violence. She has testified on her work to the House of Commons Standing Committee on the Status of Women, and was part of Canada’s official delegation to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. She aspires to pursue legal work that focuses on combating the violence and exploitation of Indigenous women and girls in Canada.